Ida M’Toy
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, (1979). Single volume, measuring 10 x 7.5 inches: [40]. Original red cloth, upper board stamped with gilt device. Illustrated with photographs throughout text. Numbered in ink and signed by author on colophon. Bookplate of Ray A. Roberts to front pastedown.
Signed limited edition of Eudora Welty’s profile of Mississippi midwife and second-hand clothes dealer Ida M’Toy, first published in Accent magazine in 1942. Welty celebrates M’Toy’s dedication to “delivering the child and clothing the man:” “She sees them all, her children and her customers, in the double way, naked and clothed, young and then old, with love and with contempt, with open arms or with a push to bar the door.” This edition includes Welty’s photographs of M’Toy, original correspondence with Accent editor Charles Shattuck, and a reproduction of M’Toy’s own letter to Shattuck after the story was published. From the library of Welty’s longtime friend and sometime agent, Ray Roberts, best remembered as the editor of Thomas Pynchon. Polk A23:1, in first state red binding; number 246 of 350 copies. A fine example, with excellent provenance.
Price: $250.00